Site Search Navigation

Site Navigation

Site Mobile Navigation

Supported by

Blogtalk: Details From Nevada and South Carolina

By Ariel Alexovich January 18, 2008 5:22 pmJanuary 18, 2008 5:22 pm

With that messy at-large caucus lawsuit behind them, the Nevada blogs have quieted down a little bit ahead of the state caucuses and are turning their attention to who’ll be the winners and losers come Saturday night.

But as evidence that nearly all the G.O.P. candidates are ignoring the Nevada primary, only two presidential hopefuls have even bothered to send out mailers to Silver State residents. Dullard Mush makes a list of all the ads Ron Paul and Mitt Romney have sent out. (Mr. Paul wins, if you want to call a big direct-mail campaign winning, with 12.)

In the Review-Journal poll, Mr. Paul lags far behind in fifth place, but Brian Eckhouse, blogging at the Las Vegas Sun, writes that Mr. Paul’s efforts in the Silver State could pay off.

Don’t be surprised if Paul challenges the other presumed frontrunners — Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee and John McCain — for second or third place, given how those three have shown little interest in Nevada.

And caucuses — unlike primaries — tend to attract only the most passionate and knowledgeable, which certainly describes Paul’s backers.

The Nevada G.O.P. leadership seems almost as forgetful about its caucus as the candidates. Apparently thousands of Nevadans received incorrect instructions on where to go on Saturday, writes Anjeanette Damon on the Reno Gazette Journal blog.

There are two important caveats here. First, there has never before been an important, high-turnout Nevada caucus, so nobody can really be sure how to model turnout. Second, with John Edwards seemingly below 15 percent statewide and thus likely to fail to meet viability in many precincts, the second choices of his supporters could be truly decisive, along with the remaining undecided voters.

Hugh Jackson, the voice behind the Las Vegas Gleaner, lends his progressive voice to CityLife in a column that basically lays out the reasons why the Nevada Democratic caucus has been more of a headache than a help to the Nevada Democratic Party.

Residual benefits from the efforts in Nevada on behalf of one candidate or another were always an iffy proposition, as presidential campaigns, especially Democratic ones, are notorious for bugging out of a state after Election Day.

But moreover, Nevada’s fling with the nominating process has ripped the party asunder and brought old rifts and resentments out into the open, and it looks like damage to relationships among fellow Democrats, not party-building, will be the lasting legacy of the presidential campaigns.

The most spectacular and publicized example — the cheesy lawsuit filed by Clintonoids and aimed at closing down at-large caucus locations for casino workers — reflects a contingent of party insiders and activists who have long been jealous of the influence wielded in the party by organized labor generally and the Culinary Union specifically.

But that’s not the only source of discontent being vented, quietly and not so quietly, by party activists and volunteers. Rigging a county party meeting so that one candidate’s surrogates get more time to speak, mysteriously ousting temporary precinct chairs and replacing them for scant or contrived reasons — these things make the eyeballs of normal humans glaze over, but they’re the sort of stuff that drives the faithful nuts.

Lisa Mascaro at the Las Vegas Sun blog, taking a cue from the Hill newspaper, speculates that the caucus will end up being a boon for one person: Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader who hails from Nevada.

The paper revisits the issues that are creating a tricky landscape for Reid — his sagging poll numbers at home and a serious effort by Republicans nationally to take down the majority leader, much as was done to former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota when he was leader.

Nevada Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley noted in the story that that higher Democratic registration numbers could also spell trouble this fall for Republican Rep. Jon Porter, whose swing district in Southern Nevada is becoming more heavily Democratic.

(Of course, Democrats have always had high hopes in that district, which they have been unable to take since it was created in 2002.)

Well, besides the politicos, maybe the national media attention is fun for the University of Nevada-Las Vegas students who got to hang with Chelsea Clinton and TV stars America Ferrara and Amber Tamblyn last night.

Holding an iced Starbucks drink, former first daughter Chelsea Clinton chatted and posed for photographs with students at an informal campaign stop on behalf of her mother Thursday afternoon at UNLV ….

Students said that Chelsea, who perched on table tops when no seats were available, was down to earth.

SOUTH CAROLINA:

As we turn our heads toward South Carolina, we say goodbye to logistical election issues and basically the entire Democratic race. Hello, tons of polling data, outbursts in office supply stores and the confederate flag.

Adam at the flashy conservative blog, the Palmetto Scoop, seems to list all the available poll data showing John McCain enjoying a slim lead over Mike Huckabee in most accounts. But Adam comments only on the Fox News results that include a 19 percent undecided voter number.

In the end, that’s what will determine tomorrow’s winner and this number seems astronomical compared to most of the other recent polls. Few have seen double-digits, let alone nearly one-fifth of voters.

Brian McCarty, who writes the South Carolina political blog Voting Under the Influence, opined today about the “ineptness” of Mr. Romney’s upset with Glen Johnson, a reporter for the Associated Press.

Telling the reporter that being argumentative is unprofessional while the cameras were rolling, well, that is either ignorant or arrogant.

Romney is not running for city council, he is running for president of the United States. The press has a right to ask tough questions, and the candidate had better be ready to diffuse the aggressive reporter, not turn it up a notch. President Bush, as unpopular as he is and as inarticulate as he can be sometimes, has that skill. The president uses nicknames and references to humor to diffuse the press at times.

Romney and his folks had better learn fast that the President of the United States is going to get a lot more heat than some reporter talking about lobbyists. If Romney can not handle that guy better, how is going to handle Obama or Clinton in the fall? Or what about an aggressive Congressional or foreign leader?

Adds the anonymous lead blogger at Not Very Bright: “Romney seems almost pathological to me in the things that come out of his mouth.” Ouch.

Blogger Rod Dreher at Beliefnet.com is disappointed in Mike Huckabee’s decision to bring up the confederate flag issue yesterday.

Look, I am proud to be a Southerner, and I think it is absolutely possible to be proud of one’s Southern heritage while at the same time conscious and repentant of the racial injustice that is inextricably part of its past. Still, too much evil was done under that banner for it ever to be merely a benign symbol of regional pride. I wish this weren’t true, but it is, and we white Southerners who love our homeland but hate what our ancestors did to black people have to live with that. Just because obnoxious Yankees say it doesn’t make it untrue.

And so, I regret that Huckabee picked up this issue today in an attempt to exploit regional resentment for his campaign’s benefit. I truly don’t believe that’s the kind of man he is.

One Spartanburg blogger did a very, very, very unscientific poll at her local bar. The results? Of 31 voters/bar patrons, there were 18 Democrats and 13 Republicans. John Edwards led the Democrats with 7 votes, and Messrs. McCain and Huckabee tied for first in the Republican race with 5 votes.

And finally, should you want a ride on Ron Paul’s blimp, and live near Sumter Municipal Airport, The State’s political blog has good news.

Obama said:
“I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom,”

Enough, I lost the little respect I have for Obama! Just because he is courting republicans doesn’t have to mean he has to wear republican glasses to see the world. I wonder if he should be even running on Democratic Party ticket. We probably are lucky that he lost New Hampshire. The longer the primary season, the better we are getting to see the true colors of our candidates, particularly the lesser known ones on the field. Democrats, please take a second look at the field and judge for yourself who will uphold the fundamental values of all Democrats, before you cast your valuable vote.

It is true that for a period of time the Republicans were the party of ideas and the Democrats were in the wilderness not sure what they stood for. Being willing to say that shows strength. Now he wants to make the Democrats the party of ideas – sounds like a positive comment to me. Obama is very liberal, not like Reagan. Anyone saying otherwise is simply trying to distort the facts.

People Listen to Ann C (comment #4) Or do a check for yourself of Obama’s background and the kinds of things he has been committed to throughout his political career and before. You’ll see he a true Democrat.

Reagan won with 49/50 states. It’s a fact that Reagan “tapped into something” in the American voters to achieve that. Obama merely acknowledged that. He sincerely wants to do for Democrats what Reagan did for Republicans. He wants to bring in many independent and some crossover voters to build a new, strong majority to elect a Democratic president with a truly Democratic mandate. Instead of being offended, Democrats should be truly excited about and support and candidate who is not only sincere about doing that, but has a real shot at succeeding.

I don’t think that Senator Harry Reid will have too much in trouble in Nevada getting re-elected. Senator Reid’s situation is just not analogous to that of former Senator Tom Daschle. As a native South Dakotan, I watched Senator Daschle’s re-election bid fairly closely, and South Dakotans, by and large felt that Senator Dashcle wasn’t really still part of their state. Somehow, people felt that he represented them, but that he had lost the connection to the state. That, definitely, does not describe Senator Reid.

Senator Reid is often back in Nevada attending events and talking to people. He still, to me anyway, seems to be “of the people” here. Although, I do think that he could broaden his state agenda to support other areas in addition to the environment, he seems to be faring well, at least among people that I associate with.

I know that I look forward to supporting Senator Reid as the time comes closer to his re-election. Right now, however, most Nevadans minds are on tomorrow’s caucus and not on one that is still a couple of years off.

Don’t forget that a caucus favors the candidate whose voters have done their homework. So in one corner, the Obama supporters, standing together looking like the future of America, armed with all sorts of reasons why their candidate deserves to be the nominated. In the other corner, the old Democratic guard, full of invective but at a loss for new ideas, homogeneous, ill-tempered, ill-informed, voting because their candidate is unfairly “piled on” by the “liberal media.” It apparently makes people want to switch to the first corner.

Mike Huckabee is our choice to be President; and, we’ll support him over the other candidates. As with Reagan and Bush II, Huckabee is being significantly underestimated by everyone. This will become evident as each primary occurs. Huckabee’s support will continue to build, even as the major establishment media and political control groups try to “contain” him. Let’s hope he gets Secret Service protection as soon as possible. The “best” future of the United States lies with Mike Huckabee at this point in history.

Obama said:
“I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom,”

He is obviously pandering, so politics as usual the move was stupid considering this is a Democratic primary not a General Election. And his premise of “republicans were the party of ideas” were completely off base, it was Clintons ideas of balanced budgets, creating 22 million new jobs, eliminating the disparaging inequality between rich and poor were the ideals of the time. We are now longing for those times to move forward aren’t we.

The republican’s ideals were divisive. They aspired to create a division in the substance of politics, so if he is referring to the destructive and divisive nature of how to run a devisive and hateful country, I guess he was right, otherwise history is not in agreement with obamas statement.

In my precinct this morning, Ron Paul tied for 2nd place with John McCain. As expected, a heavy Mormon turnout assured a win for Mitt Romney. We’re delighted with Ron Paul’s strong showing and look forward to the final tally later today.

Obama said:
“I think it’s fair to say that the Republicans were the party of ideas for a pretty long chunk of time there over the last 10 to 15 years in the sense that they were challenging conventional wisdom,”

To those who criticize this, I suggest a less knee jerk response. Obama is clearly correct. The Neocon ideas drove the last decade or more, and drove the country nearly into the trash bin, but they were idea-driven. The mainstream Democrats just flopped around, while the left wing of the party, to which I belong, tried desperately to stop them from begin Republican Light.

One thing about Obama, he tells the truth, no matter where the chips fall. Something Hillary has apparently never done in her life. It’s about time for a truthful President.

When the Republican candidates get down to 3 real soon the media will be forced to give Ron Paul more coverage. When people see that he hasn’t changed his stance in 20 years and compare that to the flip flopping of all the other candidates they will start to flock to him.

You want to see the mess our current politicians have gotten us into. Last month, according to the gov’t, the economy was strong, unemployment was low, and the stock market was roaring. Fast forward 30 days the economy is in a recession, unemployment is rising, and the stock market is crashing. Now everyone wnts to give us anywhere from 100-200 BILLION. Where is this coming from?

When the government reports inflation they strip out housing prices, oil, and food because they are too volatile. What is left? Like everyone buys a television every week.

If you exhaust your unemployment benefits the Gov’t no longer counts you as unemployed.

This is a shell game the Gov’t has run on us and now we have to pay the piper. If we don’t get a President that understands fiscal responsibility then this recession becomes a depression.

President Obama drew criticism on Thursday when he said, “we don’t have a strategy yet,” for military action against ISIS in Syria. Lawmakers will weigh in on Mr. Obama’s comments on the Sunday shows.Read more…